


Practice Rites

by Nefs



Category: Pyre (Video Game)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-28
Updated: 2017-11-28
Packaged: 2019-02-08 00:21:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12852684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nefs/pseuds/Nefs
Summary: The expected response to rite burnout would be a breather from said rites, but Erisa's always broken her own path through life. She just happens to have company this time.





	Practice Rites

Sometimes the Downside feels too endless and heavy to bear alone, the Rites and the Nightwings blurred together as mere fixtures of her surroundings instead of companions that might brighten up her exile. Erisa will come to appreciate them again in time; she's fond of her fellow exiles in her own way, and they’re all stuck here together, after all. Soon, she’ll go back to teasing Brighton and Oralech, bribing Ti’zo into mischief, improvising her own lyrics over the Lone Minstrel’s melodies.

But for now, Erisa takes respite with the Beyonder Crystal, and feels herself come alive again.

The crystal may be a prison to its inhabitants, as the Downside is to its exiles, but to Erisa it’s still new and different, and wholly associated with her favorite orb-dwelling spirit.

_“Another practice rite, O lovely visitor?”_

It’s not truly a rite, because it’s just her and Sandra, running without a team to back them, and Erisa sometimes questions the usefulness of it in training her for the real thing. She never dwells on it for long; this ceased being about just practice quite a while ago.

Now it’s more about the sensation: the fluttering of her raiments as she leaps, the sound of the orb whistling past into the pyre, Sandra's laughter ringing in her ears. It’s about working the fog out of her system.

It’s about Sandra too.

Sandra, the one who understands loneliness just as much as – if not more – than Erisa herself.

(Sometimes, Erisa’s not the one feeling leaden when they begin. Sometimes, she’s the one who taps on a silent green crystal and says, “Still free for a practice rite?”)

There’s a shared understanding that these sessions are not the time for fumbling with talk. That can come later, once they’ve burnt off the haze and it rises like steam, taking their stresses with it.

If there’s anything better than performing in a rite, letting loose the strength and life in her own body, it’s watching those motions in Sandra, who moves with all the fluidity granted by her numerous years of practice.

Sandra’s the kind of opponent Erisa’s always wished for. She keeps her on her toes, with misleading tactics and the occasional sarcastic taunt when those tactics catch Erisa unawares. Erisa likes that hint of bite, knowing there’s only softness behind it. She likes the rush that challenging Sandra stirs in her, and she likes when that rush bubbles up in Sandra as well, overflowing as laughter that the spirit is just too damn _happy_ to keep stifled.

And Erisa laughs too, peals that don’t stop even when Sandra, sly, ceases an Aura charge to instead tackle her to the ground.

She's still laughing, breathless with that gorgeous sound and her repetition of "that's cheating, that's cheating" when Sandra leans down, hand brushing her hair aside to kiss her.


End file.
